Questions during a crisis are less about facts and more about emotions. This question comes straight from the gut, not the head. Most leaders I’ve watched acted as if it were just the opposite. When they ignore the emotions and speak only to the facts, they lose their team or their audience. That’s why Yes [...]

This is a question that is asked but not vocalized, so you may have to bring it up yourself. In any crisis people look closest to home first. That’s nothing to be ashamed of–it comes from the survival instinct in all of us. But sometimes, when we realized we’ve stopped thinking about the big picture [...]

If you ignore the advice from the last question, you probably won’t have to face this question. Not what I’d recommend, however. When people ask What is coming next?, it is good news. This question means they can see a little beyond the immediate, and it is usually an indication that you’ve been doing a [...]

The response to this question is less about completeness than it is about frequency. In the midst of a crisis, leaders can have an unimaginable list of people competing for their time and attention. It appears that the people on their teams often go to the bottom of the list. I think this is a [...]

This is the BIG question, and only you can answer it. But answer it you must. Leaders owe it to themselves as well as the people they lead to go deeper into their own motivations, their hopes, and their dreams. Business schools don’t require a course in "Understanding Your Personal Mission" for graduation, nor do [...]

I was doing a team-building session for a group of system-types in a large organization. We had claimed our space in the corporate conference center and made it ours for the two days of our session. By the afternoon of the first day, it was a mess. Flipcharts covered the walls, candy wrappers littered the [...]

Did the word "love" in this question make you raise an eyebrow, cough nervously, or think about moving on to the next page? These questions are going to get increasingly personal as the pages turn, and you’re going to have to make a decision about whether or not you’re going to stay with them. Being [...]

Everyone gets down in the dumps. The trick is not to stay there. Especially when you’re the leader. So, how do you re-ignite your enthusiasm? I call my grandson Quinn. At the time I’m writing this he’s twenty-one months old, and his favorite word is WOW! (The caps and the exclamation mark are deliberate–you can [...]

I’d like you to try a little experiment. Remember the first day of your first real job. What happened that caused you to hide the expression on your face so no one else could see the silly grin that spread from ear to ear? Remember what triggered the response and what the response felt like. [...]

In a recent interview on the Today show, the musician Jon Bon Jovi told Matt Lauer how much he enjoyed working as an actor with Matthew McConaughey on the movie U-571. As an inexperienced actor, Bon Jovi looked to McConaughey as a leader and wasn’t disappointed. Bon Jovi said that it wasn’t what McConaughey said [...]

Recently, four of us gathered around a table to play cards. Of the four, one knew all the rules, two knew some of the rules, and the fourth thought she’d played the game once in her life. We played a practice hand to give everyone the opportunity to get a feel for the rules, and [...]

My friend Kathryn Jeffers wrote a book called Don’t Kill the Messenger: How to Avoid the Dangers of Workplace Conflict. In the Introduction, she paraphrases Aristotle’s words on anger. He believed that anyone can become angry, but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, for the right purpose, and in the [...]

This question can be tricky if your answer is I don’t or I’ve heard of people who try something like this. How do you find time to think? Not to solve problems or put out fires, but just to think about things both big and small. I know, I know: you’re so busy every day [...]

After a fifteen-year on-again, off-again quest, I found a copy of a book I remember from my early childhood, I Decided. Rereading it after more years than I care to share with you, the story was just as I remembered. A little girl goes shopping with her mother and is allowed to pick one toy. [...]

Have you ever listened to the radio station WIIFM? I’m surprised if you haven’t. It has the power to broadcast all over the world, and my experience, both personal and professional, leads me to believe that everyone tunes in to this station–sooner rather than later. WIIFM stands for What’s In It For Me. Get it? [...]

I’m often hired to do skill-building workshops for frontline employees. The particular skill doesn’t seem to matter; the same question is asked by participants, "Are you doing this program for our managers/leaders?" Usually the answer is no, but I’ve come to believe that their question isn’t grounded in a concern about the skill set of [...]

Several years ago, one of the airlines aired a TV commercial that told the story of a leader who gathered his team around a table to announce that one of their oldest clients had just called and fired them. As he handed out plane tickets, he told the team that they were going to visit [...]

Have you ever known anyone who’s had a brush with death? People’s reactions vary, but most often they seem to walk away from the experience vowing to make every minute count. They realize there are no guarantees when it comes to the future, and that’s okay as long as they are taking advantage of the [...]

I’ve always understood the expression "Can’t see the forest for the trees." It wasn’t till I moved to northern Wisconsin that I realized not everyone does understand it. It’s easy, in this land of wonderful woods, to miss the beautiful expanse as you focus on one scruffy pine–wondering why someone hasn’t pruned it. The same [...]

It’s the vision thing. In my favorite leadership book, The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, the authors remind leaders that it is their job to imagine things for their organizations that are beyond the ordinary. That’s why people ask this kind of question. It is their attempt to understand, clarify, [...]

Now reread the answer to the last question. Probably the team you assembled in response to that question will continue to deal with the results of asking this question. There’s one more thing to focus on. In a time of crisis, when emotions are high, it’s tempting, yet disastrous, to promise things you hope you [...]

Crisis creates fear, and the only way I know to quell fear is with information. Your job as a leader during a crisis is to be visible, approachable, accessible (see the comments on the previous question), and the fount of all information. Impossible, you say. I guess I agree. It’s impossible, and yet a leader [...]

In a crisis this question will mean different things to different people, and that’s perfectly okay. Some people will assume that you’re asking about their physical well-being and will answer from that perspective. Some will assume you’re asking about their mental state and will answer that way. Still others will give you credit for thinking [...]

Please consider this question carefully. Asking it means that you take leadership seriously, and it would be dishonest to ask if you neither have the resources nor the intentions to provide the support you’re asking about. But, even if you don’t have a formal program for new leaders, you can still support their efforts. You [...]

Why would you ask this question? Why do you ask any question? Questions are asked in order to learn. This question goes to the heart of the philosophy that believes that people aren’t born to be great leaders; they’re great leaders because they’ve learned to lead. (A note of caution for this and the next [...]

I used to do customer service training until I started viewing poor service as a bonus event that would provide me with more material, a greater sense of job security, and a reason to celebrate. That’s a perverse worldview, so I changed the focus of my work. There was an exercise I did in those [...]

Asking a question that requires self-evaluation is valuable for both the asker and the answerer. The answerer gets the immediate challenge of doing the self-evaluation and the reward of the insights they gain. This question will provide you, the asker, with information on how promotions are viewed within your organization. The reasons individuals ascribe to [...]

You don’t ask this question so you can hear the answer, you ask it so your mentee can hear their answer. This is a question designed to help people understand that they should dream about their future. Isn’t it sad that we need to be encouraged to dream? Ask a six-year old and they’ll give [...]

Business, any business, is about people. I will defend that statement at any time, in any place, under any circumstance. Leaders know more people, usually because they’ve been around longer and had more opportunities to meet and converse with more people inside and outside their organization. When a leader leaves one company to go to [...]

When coaches and mentors ask this question, they’re taking responsibility in two areas–the quality of training programs and the quality of work experiences. Covers a lot of ground for a seven-word question doesn’t it? Let’s start with training. Training sessions that impart vast quantities of information without considerable time for asking questions and practicing are [...]

In the discussion of the last question, I suggested that building on strengths was a better way to go as a coach than trying to eliminate weaknesses. I hope I didn’t leave you thinking that you never had to do anything with the latter. This is the question that moves you into the tricky arena [...]